Linda White’s Family Hair Care moved a block east in April, giving her twice the room to showcase her wide-ranging talents and the new features at her uniquely homey salon.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Where else, for example, would you find a sewing machine right there by the owner’s styling chair?

In addition to providing quality haircuts, styling and a broad range of salon services for both sexes and all ages in Hudson for the past 18 years, White makes clothes and does alterations on the side. She’s also a bit of an arts-and-crafts nut.

So is Bonnie Haller, who rented a chair in Family Hair Care’s old spot but is now White’s partner at the new location at 1830 Webster St.

The salon’s entrance –- just behind a white-metal table and chairs outside -- faces O’Keefe Road, just around the corner from building-neighbor St. Croix Sports.

“We have a lot of older customers, so our parking lot and handicapped space are very convenient for them,” White adds.

“People don’t have to worry about parking here. They don’t have to find a parking space on the street downtown, and they don’t have to walk across a big parking area. They can just walk right in.”

White and Haller have also added a tanning booth. Bonnie bought the tanning bed from a customer who operated a crafts-and-tanning business.

“Both of us are tanners,” Haller explains. “There are also plenty of people who still like to tan.”

Everywhere you look inside Family Hair Care, you see examples of Haller’s and White’s talents, interests and artistic eyes: white wicker shelves, cabinets, love seats and chairs; plants, artwork and other flourishes; and paintings and photography by friends and customers Jeanne Murphy and Eldora Larson.

Murphy’s and Larson’s work is for sale at the salon.

“I like doing crafty things,” notes White. “Bonnie and I are both pretty much the same that way. She likes doing glass bird feeders and quilting. There are a lot of similarities. We also both like to garden, and we both love animals.”

White adds: “We put this place together in three weeks, so there were a lot of hours involved. Bonnie’s husband Mike did a lot of the work, and my husband Bob helped on weekends. I wanted it to be homey. I wanted it to be like my home –- open, bright and hospitable.”

Grand opening

White and Haller want to get the word out about their new business, so they’ve scheduled a Sept. 27 grand opening with St. Croix Sports and another building neighbor, All About Dogs.

Food, door prizes and other fun will be featured. It’ll also be a chance for customers and business neighbors to all get to know each other better, which White notes is one of the attractions of owning a hair salon.

“You form a friendship with your clientele –- it’s kind of like being a bartender,” she says. “People tell us what’s going on in their lives, and we listen. And vice versa –- they get to know a lot about our lives and everything that’s going on with us too.

While they’re partners at the new location, White and Haller have retained their separate business names and telephone numbers to make the move easier on their regular clients.

Haller still does business as Ira Hair –- phone number (715) 386-8684. White, meanwhile, claims the Family Hair Care name –- phone number (715) 386-8332. There are signs for both outside.

“Bonnie’s always had that phone number, and I’ve always had the same number too,” White explains. “The nice thing is that it was a pretty short move and it’s all been pretty easy to explain to people.”

It’s also been a trouble-free transition for the co-owners.

“One of the best things that happened was when Bonnie came in,” White says. “She’s just a super person, and we get along really well. When we were putting the new shop together, we just agreed on everything.”

She adds: ”That makes it a great place to work -- and a great place to come into too.”

Chuck Nowlen joined the Star-Observer team as a business, township and general-assignment reporter in April, 2014 after a three-decade career in newspapers and magazines, and as a newsroom-management/business-planning consultant.